


Everything Stays, But It Still Changes

by Asterisk_UwU



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Injury Recovery, Multi, One sided Sasha/Max, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2020-05-13 14:53:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19253428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asterisk_UwU/pseuds/Asterisk_UwU
Summary: It’s been three years.Everything feels different, yet still so familiar.It’s like the world has been moving and changing around me.Or maybe.. I’m the one who’s changed......Nah.Even you changed, even if by just a little bit.Ain’t that right, David?





	1. Home Is Where Your Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

> “So there go our boys
> 
> Walkin' on the icy ground,
> 
> Headin' towards their destiny
> 
> I'm sure they'll figure something out.”
> 
> -Adventure Time

A red-haired fox trots down a dirt road, looking for food to prey on. Feeling slight irritation, it lets out a sneeze, as it stops in an area filled with fields of flowers. The fields were vast, containing flowers of a wide variety, varying from all shapes and sizes, and small vegetable plants here and there. Standing within the flowering fields made it feel like living inside a work of art.

 

    The fox continues to walk down the dirt road, when the smell of dead meat started to fill the small fox’s lungs. The small fox sniffed the ground, searching around for the direction the odor is coming from. It sniffs around for a few seconds, until it startles itself by bumping into something hard. It had the shape of a rectangular prism, with a slightly faded red and a rough texture, as well as faded lettering on one of its sides. A brick.

 

    The small fox quickly crinkles its nose and shakes its head, picking it up from the ground. The fox turns its head and spots the object at hand lying further down on the other side of the road, where plenty of oak, pine, and other varieties of trees flourished. Upon closer inspection, the object had the appearance of a dead rabbit, it’s small body on the ground lifeless. It’s previously pure white fur was stained in grass stains and dried up blood, making it a mix of faint jade green and red. Claw marks protruded from the rabbit’s chest, as if it was attacked by a predator and left for dead. 

 

    The red-haired fox walks towards the small rabbit. Before it got halfway across the road however, the sound of a loud horn buzzed through the no longer peaceful area. The fox looks to its left and is scared out of its wits, as it sees a humongous yellow truck heading towards it.

 

As the red-haired fox jumped and scampered back into the pollen filled fields, watchful eyes stared at it through the windshield as it disappears from view. These eyes belonged to a boy in his early teens. He is seen leaning on the car door, watching the fields and forests pass him by as he subconsciously fiddled with a button on the cuff of his sleeve. He wore an unbuttoned blue plaid flannel that showed a saturated yellow T-shirt underneath, accompanied by navy blue denim jeans and red Converse sneakers. He blows at the mass of black hair covering half of his face annoyed as it continues to irritate his nose. Despite today being one of the most epic days ever, he could only feel as if everything's going to absolute shit.  It really doesn’t help that the person in the driver’s seat is giving him a migraine with all of his ‘war stories.’

 

“..and the moral of that story is, just like my mum had once said to me, ‘Don’t ever let anybody tell you they’re better than you!’ Ain’t my mom awesome?” the driver said with a boastful tone and a cheeky grin, interrupting the boy from his thoughts. He looked like the average stereotypic trucker, with a trucker hat, a black, greasy shirt, denim blue pants, and boots, plus a long ass beard.

 

The boy deadpans, urging himself not to say ‘Run Forrest Run.’ “Yeaahhh, she sounds... great.” he lies.

 

“She sure fucking is! Oh, that reminds me of another time I-”

 

The teen pales and quickly says, “Mr. Porter, how much farther are we from camp?” It seemed to have done the trick, for the man in question just started to blink as if he had completely forgotten about what he was about to say. 

 

    He glances at the boy with a smile and says, “No need to worry about that, sunny! We aren’t that much farther. Just wait a bit longer and you’ll be with all of your friends again in no time! Also, you don’t have to call me that, we’ve known each other for a while, haven’t we? Just call me Bob!”

 

    “Stop fucking calling me names and just maybe I’ll reconsider,” the boy says even more fidgety than before, not thinking of the words flying out of his mouth.

 

    Fortunately, Porter just laughs and lightly punches the boy, although he still flinches due to the immense mass of the man that makes it that much harder. “Come on, Max! Don’t you remember all the great times we had taking you to and from Camp Campbell? Man, it feels like the last time I’ve seen you was like, three years ago!”

 

    The boy Max simply stares back at the man with annoyance in his eyes. “It  **was** three years ago,” he replied in an irritated tone.

 

    He laughs again unfazed. “Oh right! I guess it was!” Max twitches in annoyance. “Say, you’ve changed a lot in the past three years, haven’t you!  You seem a fuck ton calmer and less assholish since I’ve last seen ya!”

 

    Max scoffs, thinking of the thought of him being calm and collected. He was 97% sure that villainy is in his blood. Well, he guesses Porter wasn’t totally wrong. If the ‘Campbell v. Criminal’ incident had proved anything, change is something that is inevitable. Either way, he still can be pretty wretched if he  _ wanted _ to.

 

    As Bob is about to start some more unwanted small talk, Max blocks him out, looking out through the window. His stomach started to churn as the two got closer and closer to camp. Sure, he was pretty stoked to be back at camp, but he felt as if he would be unwelcome back at camp. Max knew he wasn’t able to do anything about it, but nonetheless, trust isn’t something that can come back so easily. Well, for him at least.

 

    He closes his eyes, letting himself drift off from the real world, at least just for a few seconds.

 

~~•~~

 

_     In the dark, a giant vehicle can be seen exiting some campgrounds. A tall man with short red hair and a green T-shirt with a pine tree symbol on it can be seen waving at the vehicle with a sad smile and swollen eyes from crying a bit too much. _

 

_     Inside the truck was a man and a boy. The man had a simple short beard with his dark brown hair in a neat hair tie and wearing a red and blue flannel with jeans. He looked around the high 20s to low 30s, with an exuberant look on his face. He glanced at the boy with a small amount of pity in his eyes, and then went back to look back at the road humming to himself. _

 

_     The boy itself didn’t notice his quick glance, instead focusing on the campgrounds disappearing in the distance. He wore a frown on his face, wearing a blue hoodie with a yellow T-shirt inside, jeans, and red sneakers with a white stripe in the middle of it. He pushes his black curls back and takes a deep breath. _

 

_     The boy would never admit it, but he knew he was gonna miss camp. Of course he always ‘hated’ it, but even so it was still a million times better than his ‘home, sweet home.’ He thinks of the man waving at him as he left, and thought of his sunken eyes and sad smile. The moment he felt his eyes getting watery, he immediately started rubbing his eyes vigorously, refusing to let himself cry again. He turns around in his chair, devoting himself to glare angrily at the windshield.  _

 

_     A bit of an awkward silence filled the air, until the man coughed and looked at the boy with a big smile. “So, Maxwell, did you have fun at camp?” _

 

_     The boy said with an annoyed tone, “It’s  _ **_Max_ ** _. And Camp was just  _ **_dandy, Porter_ ** _.” He did not break his gaze on the windshield. _

 

_     The driver said with a small laugh, “Sorry, my bad. That’s good, and please, you can call me Bob! No need to be formal here.” _

 

_     He glares harder at the windshield, and chose not to respond. It was way too late for him to think up a good enough comeback. _

 

_     The area opens to reveal a big field. The field were untamed, with wild weeds and plants growing everywhere relentless. On the other side of the road, there was a forest filled with old pine trees and small oak saplings. Max recognized them as the saplings they planted as a ‘camp activity.’ He sees a blue rabbit quickly crossing the dirt road with quick agility, disappearing into the forest. _

 

_     Porter rolls down his window and peers outside. “It’s a beautiful night, huh? That reminds me of one time in the war where-“ _

 

_     Max snaps his glare at the man. “I swear to fucking god if you start telling another one of your fake ass war stories again you will  _ **_never_ ** _ see the light of day.” _

 

_     He decides to tease him. “Aw man. You hurt me. How about a song I made? It’s about me and-“ _

 

_     His eyes went wide as a brick flew past him and out the window, narrowly missing him. He looked at Max, who had a smirk on his face and his backpack on his lap zipped down. He paused. “Why did you have a brick in your backpack?” _

 

_     Max snickers. “That’s for me to know, and for you to never find out.” _

 

_     They left the area, leaving the forgotten brick hidden within the untamed fields. On a side of the brick was one simple word, written down with Sharpie: ‘FOREVER.’ _

 

~~•~~

 

    The truck starts to slow down to make a left, bringing Max back into the real world. He looks out the window, and sees the sign pointing to Camp Campbell. His heart stopped however, as he suddenly realized that this wasn’t the same sign he saw so many years ago. Instead of ‘the great Cameron Campbell’ on the sign, a tall man with pale skin and short red hair was there with a familiar smile, wearing a brown vest, khaki shorts, boots, and a green T-shirt with the symbol of a pine tree in the middle of it. Not only that, but besides the man was text in bold letters: ‘ **THIS WAY TO CAMP CAMP** .’

 

    “David,” Max breathed out, slightly shocked at the new revelation. From the few years he’d been going to Camp Campbell, they never had the money to fix anything, much less remake an entire sign. He pursed his lips as he ponders on how much camp has changed while he was gone. The thought only made him sink down into his seat.

 

    Porter gives a loud whistle as he glances at the sign and drives faster. “Damn, Davey doesn’t look a day older! If I had to take care of such a giant group of kids, I’d look like a wrinkled up potato!”

 

    He murmurs to himself subconsciously, “Don’t worry, you already do.” He wonders how much his two friends’ had changed over the past three years as well. Max pats his flannel’s pockets for reassurance and relaxes upon feeling the small, sharp-edged photo crinkle. 

 

    A hint of a smile on his face as he reminisces about the good times in Camp Campbell. His time there made him feel safe, even if the camp itself is basically a safety hazard. Of course they weren’t exactly ideal, but they were memories and times that he wouldn’t trade for the whole fucking universe. 

 

    However, all the good times also come with bad ones. After all, we all must return back to the real world, whether we like it or not.

 

~~•~~

 

_     “Hey, wake up! We’re here!”  _

 

_     Max groans. He groggily rubs his eyes and looks outside. Sure enough, he was back. _

 

_     Besides the truck, the driveway was empty, and all the lights in the house were closed. No matter how hard he looks, he couldn’t seem to find any traces of life within the house. No one to greet him back after two months. _

 

_     He frowns but shrugs it off. This was expected of course. In a way, it was kind of stupid to believe that they would be there for him for once. _

 

_     He slings his backpack onto his shoulder and opens the car door. He glances at Porter. “Thanks for the ride again, I guess.” _

 

_     Porter looks at him with pity, which Max absolutely hated. He doesn’t  _ **_need_ ** _ pity. Porter sighs. “No problem, Max. If you ever need help with anything at all, you have my number.” He ruffles Max’s hair, in which the boy seats away his hand in annoyance _

 

_     He scoffs and turns away. “Sure, whatever.” He jumps out of the truck and stumbles a bit on his landing, overwhelmed by the slightly big height difference compared to his aggravatingly small size and still a little tired. He narrowed his eyes in irritation and yawns. _

 

_     “Wait!” Porter shouted. Max turned to see him reaching over his seat with something in his hand. In his hand was a small, old teddy bear. “Don’t forget Mr. Honeynuts!” he says with a big smile. Max blushes and quickly grabs the bear with a glare. Porter laughs and retreats back to his former position in his seat, but not before closing the side door. With one last wave, the man backs out of the driveway and drives away.  _

 

_     Max stares at the truck as it slowly disappears into the darkness and then turns to the lifeless house. His oh, so sweet home. _

 

_     He walks up to the front door, pulls out his key, and pushes the door open with it.  He shuts and locks the door behind him and then opens the lights. He peers around his familiar yet foreign environment. The house was silent. _

 

_     He drops his stuff by his room and heads over to the kitchen. On the kitchen table  was a note. It said:  _ **_‘Hey honey! Sorry I couldn’t greet you back home, but I was offered an all night shift last minute and you know how we need the money. There’s some leftover Chinese food in the fridge for you and your father when he gets back home from his meeting. I won’t be back until 3 am, so no need to wait for me! Can’t wait to see you!! -Your Loving Mother’_ **

 

_     Max mutters to himself upset, and tosses the note back onto the table.  Of course she’s at her ‘amazing’ job. After all, her awesome job is waaay more important than her own son. Mother of the fucking. year. _

 

_     He checks the fridge and sees the leftovers.  He grimaces at the old food. “Yeah no, I think I’ll just settle for a banana or something.” He closes the fridge and grabs an apple from the counter. Max exits the kitchen and goes into his room. _

 

_     He shuts the door behind him and throws himself onto his bed. _

 

_     He takes a bite of his apple and stares at his ceiling. _

 

_     He sighs and shut his eyes. _

 

_     “I’m home.” _

 

~~•~~

 

    He glances through the windshield and feels his heart beat even faster. From afar he could see the entrance to Camp Campbell -Camp Camp?- , the same old wooden sign held up by two shaky wooden poles. The never-changing sign gave him both comfort and dread.

 

    The truck slowed down to an eventual stop, stopping right in front of the entrance. Porter looks at Max with a huge grin and says, “Yo! We’re here!” He turns and takes out the ignition key and gets out of the truck.

 

    Max rolls his eyes and says, “Oh wow, I never would have noticed,” although he doubts that the man even heard him. He opens the side door and jumps down to the ground, ignoring the steps. He looks up and immediately winces at the sudden light. He shields himself from the light with his arm and waits a few seconds to compose himself.

 

    “Here ya go sunny!” He drops Max’s navy blue duffle bag and backpack onto the ground roughly, which gets an immediate response back.

 

    “Hey, learn to be more fucking careful!” Max snaps. In all honesty, he really didn’t care about his stuff in his duffle bag, but inside his backpack, he had a few valuables and he will not hesitate to murder this guy if he finds a dent on one of them.

 

    “Hup! Sorry, little dude!” The man laughs unfazed and rubs Max’s head which annoys him even more. “I'm gonna go and head out now! Try not to cause too much trouble for Davey!”

 

    The boy rolls his eyes and looks away. “Whatever.” Porter gets back into the truck, turns it back on with the ignition key, and starts to back out. Before he leaves, he turns to Max and gives him a wave, in which Max hesitantly waves back. The man grins and finally makes his exit, leaving Max on his own.

 

    With a shaky breath he turns and stares at the entrance sign with a bit of awe and nervousness. It still was kind of hard for him to believe that he was back.

 

    Taking a deep breath, he walks through the entrance sign and into the campgrounds. He looks and sees the tents, the camp area, and.. the eating hall. As he looks at the hall, he can see light coming from the inside. A boom of laughter came out of the hall so loud that Max could’ve probably heard it from miles away.

 

    He pauses for a few seconds, and let a small but genuinely sad smile creep onto his face.

 

    “I’m home.”

  
  



	2. Family Is Bound By Love, Not Blood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Sometimes life is scary and dark. That is why we must find the light." 
> 
> -BMO, Adventure Time

_The sound of the door slam into the doorframe echoed through the house, waking up the boy. He furrowed his brows and slowly opened his eyes, letting it adjust to the darkness. He reluctantly sat up on his bed and looked with disgust at the now brown and barely eaten apple spoiling in his hand. Max throws the apple into the trash and stares at the doorway._

 

_Max hears a thread of curses and screams from a voice familiar to him. It belonged to his wretched ‘father.’ He can hear him shuffling through the wine cabinet and stomping over to the living room, followed by the mumbling of words from the TV. They were sounds that he was accustomed to, but it still made him clench his fists._

 

_He takes a deep breath and leaves the small comfort of his room, feeling his heart racing. Max didn’t want to see him, but he knew that he couldn’t avoid contact with him forever. As he exits the hallway connected to his room, he comes to the view of the kitchen. The fridge door was wide open, and the note that his ‘mother’ left for the two of them was lying face down on the kitchen tiles, most likely left unnoticed by his ‘father.’_

 

_By the counter was a wall connected to the living room that was left open by the counter, so someone in the kitchen could leave out food for people in the living room, as well as being able to see the couches and the TV. As he closes the fridge door, Max climbs onto a stool - that fucking stool- and peers through this open area and sees his father on the recliner with his feet up. He held a bottle of beer in his hand and his laptop on his lap, looking through Facebook. Like always, his ‘father’ stared at the screen with baggy eyes and a never-changing frown on his face. He looks at the TV and sees that the News was talking about some crazy woman on the streets who was a sociopathic pyromaniac. The lady seemed a bit weird, but after two months at Camp Campbell, the weird stuff started to feel normal._

 

_“Hey there, dad,_ _” Max calls out from the kitchen, which is responded with a glare. The man held exhaustion and annoyance on his face, accompanied always with a hint of disappointment._

 

_“Since whnn have you been hrre? Arn’t chu suppossed to be at Camp Landfill or somethnngh??” Max’s ‘father’ asked, slurring his words._

 

_Max rolls his eyes and leans onto the counter. He replies, “Camp Campbell. And if you didn’t realize it, Camp is over. My driver Bob drove me home last night since it’s rather obvious that me dear old parents couldn’t waste any time picking up their son and instead entrusted a stranger to pick me up.”_

 

_If his father heard what he said, he didn’t show it, turning back to the bright screen in boredom. “Hnn, start makinn dinner. Your mother is outt working hard to support you, and won't be home in time to couk.”_

 

_Max narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms in rebellion. “Why me, huh? I don’t see why you can’t cook it yourself. Oh wait, nevermind, I guess you’re too busy checking your computer to do anything fucking useful.”_

 

_The man didn’t even spare him a glance but instead furrowed his brows with even more disappointment and annoyance in his eyes. He replies in a venom-filled yet casual tone:_

 

_“Tch, ungrateful childd. Don’t worry, I’mm gonna die soonn anyways,_ **_you and yurr mother will be finally happy inn no timee_ ** _.”_

 

_Max flinched, and his eyes went wide. He glared at the man and gritted his teeth, but didn’t respond, the only sound in the room coming from the television. He jumps off the stupid stool and storms over to the fridge, swinging the fridge door open as hard as he could, almost unhinging it._

 

_His face was flushed red in anger, and his hands were wrapped into tight, shaky fists. Max bit his lip hard, almost puncturing its skin._

 

_Angry tears hit the cold floor, coming from the cold, angry boy. The only positive thing there was at that moment was the wall between him and his ‘oh so lovely daddy’ that didn’t let the man see him break._

 

~~•~~

 

The taller boy stared at the doors of the Mess Hall with discomfort. Despite having entered these door so many times before, the doors seemed to loom above him with some sort of intimidation.

 

He reached for the handle but hesitated. He had no idea what he would say to them and doubt that he could. What would even be the appropriate thing to say anyway?

 

‘Hey motherfuckers, I’m back after mysteriously disappearing and cutting off contact for three years because adults are fucking dicks! What’s for lunch?’ He chuckles slightly to himself at the thought, but it still did little to comfort him.

 

Suddenly, a new realization came to him like a cold bucket of water.

 

He froze and internally panicked. What if no one was even here? It wouldn’t be surprising considering how many campers he had seen come and go over his few summers at Camp Campbell. Hell, would Nikki and Neil be here? If they were, would he even be able to recognize them? Is Gwen still here? What about David?

 

He paused. Okay, that was a rhetorical question. David not being a camp counselor in Camp Campbell is like Nagito Komaeda: insane.

 

However, even that couldn’t calm his thoughts. He cursed himself for not thinking this far ahead. Frustrated, he didn’t even notice the figure approaching him.

 

“YO!”

 

Max jumps and whips his head towards the direction of the voice. “MOTHERFUCKER!?!” His eyes were wide open, startled.

 

The figure laughed softly to themselves. “You’re a jumpy one, ain'tcha!” Max flushes red in response.

 

Standing in front of him was a boy. He was only a bit taller than he was but had an older face, with soft yet mature jade eyes and a gentle smile. He had short brown hair covered in a hairnet and slightly tan skin. He wore a thin yellow sweater with his sleeves rolled up and denim, navy-blue jeans, along with gray, muddy boots. On top of it, he wore a light pink apron with a heart on the bottom and a pair of rubber gloves while holding a big trash bag filled with garbage from what Max is guessing is breakfast.

 

Max glares at the boy in humiliation and anger, which the boy only responds with a sheepish laugh. The boy says, “Sorry aha, I couldn’t stop myself. Please forgive me.”

 

Max scoffs and shrugs. “Whatever. Who are you?”

 

The boy smiles and was about to move to shake his hand until he remembered how dirty his gloves were and settled for a peace sign. “I’m Kevin, and I’m here for cooking camp! Although nowadays, it’s more of cooking edible food for everyone. Grandmaster doesn’t seem to mind as long as I don’t mess with his ‘special mashed potatoes.’ There was a lot of trash in the kitchen, so I volunteered to go take it out.”

 

Max snorts with a small smirk. “Well, at least now I won’t have to worry about food poisoning. I’m Max, by the way. Used to be a camper here.”

 

Kevin’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Wait, you’re Max?!? That camper that everyone kept talking about???”

 

His eyes went wide. “Talking about me?” The revelation both intrigued and scared him. For one, that meant that some of his old friends are still here, or David chatters about him a lot. Either way, it meant that he wasn’t forgotten, which gave him a bit of relief. On the other hand, he had no idea what they talked about. For all he knows, they all know him as this bitchy gremlin that loves to cause trouble and hurt others. (Then again, he does deserve it.)

 

Kevin grins. “Dude, you’re basically popular here. I can’t even count how many times people have recalled the story of how you saved the camp by getting your camp counselors beaten to a pulp by Grandmaster!”

 

Max finds himself chuckling at that, remembering how hilarious that day was. He jokes, “Yeah well, in my line of work, things like that is pretty common.”

 

Kevin snorts and responds with, “My line of work consists of being a decent cook and stopping a certain boy named Justinian from putting ghost pepper sauce in someones food ‘in the name of Justice.’”

 

He laughs and cracks a big smile. “Y’know, I think we’re going to get along just fine.” Both boys laughed together, forgetting their responsibilities and worries for just a little bit.

 

Max felt his chest become a bit lighter. He still had that lingering fatigue, but at the moment he didn’t even realize it. As if this boy’s presence alone immediately pushed away all his insecurities, fears, and walls, even if temporary. It felt.. Nice.

 

Maybe Camp wouldn’t be too bad after all.

 

~~•~~

 

_Max stared at his dark ceiling in boredom. The plate that he used for his dinner was sitting on his desk. He was too tired to do anything, but not tired enough to fall asleep. He just resulted in laying in bed while contemplating life._

 

_His eyes still felt slightly swollen, but he didn’t care enough to check how he looked. It wouldn’t be very noticeable anyways in the dark anyway._

 

_Suddenly, he hears two voices coming from downstairs. Based on how it sounds as if they were screaming at each other, he guesses that his mother was home. He glances at the door for a few seconds before shrugging and going back to staring at the ceiling._

 

_The yelling went on for quite a few minutes. Nothing that he wasn’t used to, however. He still questions how the two haven’t even divorced yet. He wonders what would happen to him if that ever did happen. Most likely he’d just end up in an orphanage or something. Maybe they’ll just full-on leave him on the streets. Not the first time anyways._

 

_Eventually, the screaming died off, and Max could hear someone storming off, loud footsteps coming closer and closer to his room._

 

_There was knock on his door and the sound of the doorknob being turned gently. “Hey, there baby.”_

 

_He turned to the door with a glare on his face, only softening a little bit on realizing who was at the door. There stood his mother, dressed up in her work clothes and looking worn out. He grunted and went back to staring at the ceiling._

 

_She enters the room and sits on the edge of the bed with a weary smile. She asks, “I’ve missed you! How was camp? Um... Camp Campwell, right?”_

 

_He groaned and shrugged his shoulders. ‘“Whatever. It wasn’t that shitty I guess. And it’s Camp Campbell._ _You should know this, considering that you’ve been sending me there for the past few years.”_

 

_She faltered and looked away nervously. “A-Ah, right. Sorry, Maxwell, I’ve been so tired lately, it must’ve slipped my mind!” (Lies..)_

 

_“Tch, whatever.” He closes his eyes and turns away from his mother as if gesturing that he no longer wants to have a conversation. He squeezes them tight, blocking out the silence and presence of her and counting the seconds it takes._

 

_Eventually, she finally sighed, and Max could hear the noise of shuffling. She picks up his dirty plate and exits the room, shutting the door behind her._

 

_It wasn’t long until more yelling ensued. The shouts were even louder this time, with the occasional bangs and stomps. No longer wanting to hear them, he curls up under his sheets and covers his ears, hoping that his damn insomnia could just fuck off for once._

 

_He wished that life didn’t have to suck that much. That he could talk to his parents. That the world would stop playing its damn games on him._

 

_That he could just drift off from this cruel world._

 

_He groans and pushes away his thoughts. He felt restless, yet was tired all the same. He rustles around his bed irritated until he hears a crinkle of paper beneath him._

 

_He pauses and sits up to check his pocket. Max’s eyes lit up as it caught sight of the now crinkled photo of him, Nikki, and Neil at camp._

 

_He immediately flips it over and reads the sequence of numbers on the back of it, which is Nikki’s and Neil’s numbers on their gadgets at home._

 

_He gets out of his bed and scrummages through one of his old bags, pulling out an outdated tablet. It was a hand me down from his mom that came from the university she works in after she got a brand new one so many years ago._

 

_He swiped on the unlock screen, impatiently tapping at the screen as it takes its sweet time in letting him into the home screen. He taps Messages and creates a group chat with him, Nikki, and Neil._

 

_He takes a breath, and types out a simple “Yo” and sends._

 

_A few seconds go by as he waits with some doubt. After all, it’s the middle of the night. There’s pretty little chance that either of them is just gonna respond-_

 

_‘Heyyyyyyy ;p’_

 

_‘God, ofc you two would be up at 2 in the fucking morning =_=‘_

 

_‘But arent u up too tho??’_

 

_‘SCIENCE NEVER SLEEPS!!!!’_

 

_Max snorts and lets out a smile._

 

_And just like that, one of his wishes came true, even if it isn’t how he expected it to be._

 

~~•~~

 

“And here is the new and improved campgrounds!”

 

The two boys arrive at the campgrounds where all the different camp stalls laid. Max still didn’t feel comfortable enough to confront old and new faces, so Kevin decided to show him around camp after he hoisted the garbage bag into the trash. Max looked at the campgrounds in surprise, as he observed how different everything was. 

 

It had all of the old ones there and some new ones, but now they didn’t look as if they were all just hastily thrown together on a low budget. Actually, scratch that, now it seems that they **aren’t** just hastily thrown together on a low budget like before. D+D Camp looked like it wasn’t going to break at the slightest touch, Science Camp had legitimate glass beakers, and Art Camp seems to now have its own small yet comfy looking shed. As for new camp areas, two new ones caught his eye. On one side of the campground was an old western looking stall, with cowboy hats and a horse head on a few hobby horses leaning onto it. What caught his eye was the toy guns that were lined up on the wall of it.

 

When Kevin saw what Max was staring at, he said, “Ah, that’s Cowboy Camp!” Max looks back at him with a deadpan stare that he laughed at. “That’s the camp that Justinian signed up for. He’s pretty obsessed with cowboys and justice for some reason… And nerf guns too.”

 

Max blinks. “Okay then. How about that camp?”

 

Max points to another camp area that was the exact opposite of Cowboy Camp. Instead, there was a large mat on the ground. On top of it was a bunch of old yet decent black armor and clothing and a bunch of bamboo sticks. Oddly as well, right next to the mat was a bookshelf filled with manga locked in by a glass frame.

 

Kevin sees the camp and responds, “Oh yeah! That’s Kendo Camp! It’s a type of combat thing that was made in Japan. In my opinion, it’s kinda just fencing with bamboo.”

 

Max raises an eyebrow. “I..but.. alright then. Odd choices of camps, but whatever I guess.”

 

Kevin turns to Max. “Hmm, what camp did you sign up for?”

 

His eyes widen in surprise. He expected that the question would come up eventually, but it kind of slipped his mind. “Oh. Uh, I signed up for—“

 

“Kevin!!!”

 

A tall girl comes to view, wearing a green T-shirt with a pine tree symbol in the middle. She had strawberry blonde hair in a loose braid and peach skin with light gray eyes and glasses. Along with her shirt, she wore black leggings and pink sneakers. She had a panicked look on her face with some dirt smeared on her glasses.

 

Kevin waved at her with a smile. “Oh, hey Cherry! You look as anxious as usual!”

 

She stormed over to him with a frustrated and concerned look on her face. “W-Where have you b-been??? A-Are you okay?? Did y-you get hurt? Do you h-have your inhaler??”

 

He rubbed his head sheepishly and laughed lightly. “Sorry Cherry, I got a bit distracted showing the new-ish camper around the camp. I’m alright, I didn’t get hurt, and I have my inhaler right here.” He pats the back pocket of his jeans.

 

She sighs in relief but then pauses. “Hollup a m-minute. N-New camper..?” She slowly turned to Max who she hadn’t realized until now. He simply gave a cautious yet still awkward look to the girl and a small wave. She gave a small squeak, clearly not expecting to have a new camper on her plate.

 

She stutters. “A-Ah! Y-You must b-be the new camper! I’m so-sorry for n-not greeting you i-immediately, we ju-just d-didn’t know you’d c-come s-so soon!!!” Her face became even redder than before, which amused Max slightly. “M-My name is Ally, a-although everyone just ca-calls me Cherry for… v-various reasons.” Kevin snickers. “I’ll b-be one of your c-camp c-counselors this summer. It’s a p-pleasure to ha-have you!...hopefully…” She murmurs the last part to herself, her nerves getting to her… Or maybe it’s just the campers...

 

Eh, same difference.

 

Max gives a short nod and takes out a small stack of papers from his duffel bag. He smooths out the crumples on the papers from being stuffed in the bag and hands it over to the nervous girl. “The name’s Max. 

 

“ **Max Cunningham**.”

 

~~•~~

 

A loud explosion echoed throughout the camp. The two boys and the girl felt the ground shake within the Counselor’s Cabin, with small items falling to the ground due to its shockwave. Max had followed Cherry to the cabin to get his papers settled, and Kevin trailed along with them simply out of boredom. Cherry shrieked at the sound and rushed out of the door to head towards the scene of the crime, forgetting the task she had at hand.

 

Kevin groaned and dragged his hand down his face. “Goddamnit. I swear, they’re gonna give Cherry a heart attack one day.” He murmured to himself. He heads towards the door to follow after Cherry, but not before looking back to Max. “Yo, you coming?”

 

Max blinks, but shrugs and follows the tall boy. He admittedly was curious about what kinds of trouble and chaos has happened within the time that he was gone and wanted to see what kind of troublemakers chose to camp here.

 

The two boys jogged over to the location of the explosion. They see Cherry who looked extremely pale as if she was about to faint. The ground was littered in ash and pieces of burnt scrap metal. Small fires were everywhere,  but fortunately were not spreading that fast. Despite its small size, Max still couldn’t help but flinch every time he gets a bit too close. 

 

A black girl stood by the biggest of the fires with a panicked expression, attempting to put everything out with the fire extinguisher currently in her hands. She had black, curly hair in a messy bun and large, beautiful sky-blue eyes, accompanied by a navy blue hoodie similar to his when he was younger and a light pink tutu. Under the tutu, she wore black spandex shorts, pink ballet slippers, and knee pads. She was rather cute and petite, that if it weren’t for that she was covered in soot and that Max was so close to getting into a coughing fit from all the smoke, he probably would have blushed.

 

Kevin yelled to the girl. “Yo, Isa! You good over there?!”

 

She turns around momentarily towards the boy to glare at him. “Yeah, I’m tooootally fine! It’s not like I’m risking my life to prevent a wildfire from burning down the entire camp!!”

 

He laughs in return obliviously. “That’s good!” Isa twitches. “So, what happened this time?”

 

Isa turns her focus back to the fire. “Radiation. Platy experiment went wrong. Doo-Hickey exploded. Radioactive platypus rampant. Chaos ensued.”

 

Max raises an eyebrow in utter confusion. What the actual fuck has and is going on here?? The only people that he can really think of that could cause something this big of a scale is… He goes frigid, his eyes becoming as wide as saucers. Could it be them?

 

Luckily, somewhat, for him, he had gotten his answer.

 

A monstrous roar echoed throughout the field. Everyone’s eyes widened, except for Cherry who’s eyes were already wide and instead started hyperventilating.

 

Following this roar was a piercing scream that Max had not expected.

 

“ **YEEEEEEHAWWWWW!!!!** ”

 

A humongous creature bursts out of the forest with another great roar. On the back of the furry beast was a girl with uniquely turquoise hair that Max immediately recognized. The beast trampled around, trying to shake off the ‘tick’ on its back. All its efforts were futile, however, as the girl still hung on well to it, basically immovable. She seemed unphased, hell, even amused!

 

“ **NIKKI, WAIT UP!!!!** ”

 

Max could feel himself freezing up.

 

Another figure emerged from the forest. It was a tall boy with dull blonde curly hair and blue eyes. He glared at the ecstatic girl annoyed. “Goddamnit Nikki, it isn’t a toy!!! It’s radioactive and literally could kill us all!!!”

 

She apparently didn’t get the memo, because she seemed to look even more exhilarated. “Really?!? Coool!!”

 

The boy groaned, realizing that he’ll have to handle this situation himself. He reaches into the inside of his grey jacket and pulls out a tranquilizer gun. Then, he shuffles through his pockets and pulls out a tranquilizer dart and loads the gun. With a focused look on his face, he points and aims the gun at the creature and shoots. Since the creature was rather massive, the boy easily hit his target. The effect was instantaneous, as the creature started to falter and eventually passed out on the ground.

 

Nikki gives a heated glare to the boy. “Neeeiiilll, what the heck!!! I was having fun!”

 

Neil rolled his eyes. “Nikki. You find anything nature-related ‘fun.’” She merely responded by blowing a raspberry at him.

 

Kevin gave a low whistle. “Wow, that’s bigger than last time’s experiment. At least it doesn’t spew out lava… right?”

 

Neil looked away. “Only poison. It doesn’t spew lava this time... probably.”

 

Kevin gulped. “A-Ah. Uh, anyways, where did you get the gun? I thought David confiscated all of your.. potentially lethal materials already.”

 

He shrugged. “Tranquilizers aren’t really lethal, but either way I stole it from Grandmaster. He has like an entire hoard of hunting equipment and.. other shameful objects in his room. I only laced that tranquilizer dart with drugs that’ll keep ‘Platy’ asleep long enough for me to make an antidote to turn her back to her original yet still terrifyingly dangerous self.”

 

“Huh. I see.” He blinks and pauses, not sure what to say. Only then did he remember the newest camper here and turned around to let Max meet Neil. “Hey, what do you think… Max?”

 

He stood a few yards away, frozen like a statue and wide eyes. Kevin headed towards the boy with concern. “Hey, are you okay?”

 

He didn’t catch how the boy behind him shared the same look as the boy in blue had.

 

~~•~~

 

He couldn’t breathe.

 

And this time, it wasn’t because of the fumes and smoke that filled the air everywhere.

 

It was due to the two people that he could see rather clearly in front of him.

 

**His first actually real friends.**

 

He honestly didn’t know how to feel.

 

He was rather torn between hugging them, brushing them off like the cool asshole he is, or just have a full-on breakdown onto the soot and dirt.

 

Instead, since he couldn’t make a decision, he just stood there frozen.

 

Like an idiot.

 

He simply just stood there as he watched Neil and Nikki. Nikki seemed to be poking the creature’s beak, while Neil was talking to Kevin with an oddly distant attitude. Then again, everything about this situation was rather odd.

 

Then suddenly, Max could feel his heart freeze for a second

 

As he and Neil made eye contact.

 

And just like that, he felt like he was going into panic mode.

 

He internally screamed, his heart thumping rapidly in his chest. He felt an adrenaline rush for some reason and felt the need to ‘take flight.’ Unfortunately, his body seemed incapable of doing so, staying entirely frigid.

 

He sees Kevin from the corner of his eye walking towards him and saying something. He couldn’t hear or really paid attention however, distracted by the sound and feeling of blood rushing through his ears and the boy in front of him.

 

Neil shared a look of shock on his face. It was expected, considering that he hasn’t seen or heard Max in several years now. It didn’t last long though, as waves of emotions morphed the expressions on his face.

 

It changed from shock to confusion, to sadness, and finally,

 

**Anger**.

 

Rage and betrayal swirled in his eyes as he stomped over to him. With every step, his heart started racing faster and faster. All of his instincts were telling him to run or get ready to fight, but nothing worked, as he was basically paralyzed in his spot.

 

The taller boy stepped closer and closer until eventually, he loomed right in front of him, with his fist clenched.

 

He willed himself to say anything to try to help his situation. Despite the efforts, it was futile, as he only managed to choke out the words, “..Neil?”

 

The said boy narrows his eyes. With loathing in his eyes, he simply said, “Fuck. You.” He raised his fist,

 

And just like that, everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok ok ok I'm realllyyy sorry for updating so late!!! I suck at keeping up with deadlines and not procrastinating aha.. Anyways here is the next chapter for the story, which took way too long since it's almost twice the size than the last one. I'll try my best to upload it next week, and if I don't you're fully obliged to yell at me in the comments. ;w; 
> 
> Anyways, byyye~


	3. Dreams and Regrets Pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'm just thinking about the future, I guess. We're on, like, the bleeding edge of history. Everything ahead of us is totally unknown and there's no guarantee that things are going to be all right. It's exciting, but it's also pretty scary. You know?" - Jake Jr., Adventure Time

_ Max wakes up groggily. He blinks his eyes, still tired. His mouth felt dry, and his chest felt rather heavy. He winced at the amount of light shielding his vision.  _

 

_ He slowly lifts his head off the ground, looking at his surroundings. He was laying down on the hard ground, that was dry and had cracks everywhere. The sun was high up in the sky, the heat beating down onto the boy. Besides the dry ground and the sky, he could see nothing else besides his skinny legs and hooves. _

 

_..Hooves? _

 

_ He looks down towards his body. Sure enough, he had hooves for hands and feet connected to spindly, furry legs. He had a small body, accompanied with dark brown fur with light tan spots in it. He also seemed to have a tiny tail, slightly wagging it. _

 

_ It appears that he is a calf? _

 

_ He shrugs his new appearance off and attempts to get up. He rolls over, wincing at his aching back. He shakily got up, trying his best to adapt to his body. He tried walking, almost tipping over numerous times. Eventually, he sort of got the hang of it and started walking around. _

 

_ Alas, the effort was to no avail. No matter how far he walked, no signs of any kind of civilization could be found. There was absolutely nothing. _

 

_ Nobody. _

 

_ As he was about to give up, a sort of rumbling sound echoed through the area. As he turned his head, he could feel himself freeze. _

 

_ The sound got louder and louder, as a humongous herd of cattle started barreling towards Max. They were coming at him with such speed and vigor, it terrified him. As they got closer and closer, he willed himself to move or do anything that would prevent him from getting stomped to death, but no matter what he tried his body refused to move. _

 

_ In a flash, the head of the herd was merely a foot away from the young calf. Max squeezed his eyes shut, legs shaking, bracing for impact. _

 

_ But nothing came. _

_ He hesitantly opened his eyes confused and immediately felt shock. All around him was passing cattle, several just stampeding through him, as if he was just a ghost. He definitely heard their loud stomping, but other than that it was as if he existed in a completely separate realm. _

 

_ Besides the seemingly never-ending stream of cattle, he couldn’t seem to see anything else. Uncomfortable, he decides to attempt to escape the herd. Fortunately, it seems that he’s no longer frozen, so he steadily moved out of the stream. _

 

_ With shut eyes, he finally gets out of the stream of cattle. He opens his eyes up to… nothing. _

 

_ There was nothing, just black. He looks back to the cattle, only to find them nowhere to be found. The sound of the stampede had stopped, with silence spreading throughout the empty space. _

 

_ The silence did not stay for long, however, as white silhouettes started flying across the area, coming out of nowhere. After a while, they started to shape out into the form of bats. Hundreds of them. They fluttered all around,  swarming everywhere. _

 

_ Confused and slightly scared, the boy ran. _

 

_ And ran. _

 

_ And ran. _

 

_ He couldn’t stop running, not even sure of where he’s running towards. He didn’t stop until his hoof met contact with something hard, _

 

_ And sent him flying. _

 

_ He made contact with the surprisingly hard ground, wincing in pain. Max shakily raised his head and looked at the object in front of him. _

 

_..A cow skeleton. _

 

_ Max gasped and jolted out of bed. He took deep breaths, his heart hammering in his chest. He frantically looked around his room, slumping his shoulders in relief at the sight of his abode. _

 

_ The relief didn’t last long, however, as he checked his alarm clock, which read ‘8:32 am.’ _

 

_..Well fuck. _

 

_ He leaps out of bed and immediately started changing. He put on a black, Pokemon T-Shirt along with denim jeans and his usual blue hoodie. He stuffed all of his work into his backpack and rushed out of his door. He watches as his bus takes a turn right into his neighborhood, and lets out a sigh of relief. He jogs over to his bus stop and gets onto the bus, sitting down onto his usual seat at the front of the bus. _

 

_ He tilts his head back with his eyes closed, huffing slightly as the bus continues on its way.  It was definitely a close one. He’d rather not have to waste more money on a taxi again.  _

 

_ Max thinks of last night and his conversation with Nikki and Neil with a smile. They were all having a debate over stupid things like whether the earth is flat or not. Always going for the unpopular opinion, he argued that the Earth was flat, successfully triggering Neil. He remembers how Neil basically made an entire essay through text about how the Earth was round. Nikki simply said that the Earth is the shape of a dinosaur. Pretty sure she was being serious. _

 

_ He was suddenly interrupted as he felt something hit his head. On his lap landed a scrunched up ball of paper. On the paper laid a scattering of insults; ‘midget,’ ‘nerd,’ ‘faggot,’ ‘emo,’ ‘no one likes you,’ and the rest of the usual generic slurs, along with a few crude drawings of dicks.  _

 

_ Max looked around. He saw how everyone’s conversations turned into hushed whispers, with all of their eyes darting between him and a group of upperclassmen snickering to themselves while looking in his direction. In an instant, he glares and makes eye contact with the leader of the group.  _

 

_ They were rather well-known around the school for bullying basically anyone who weren’t tall white boys or superiors, especially those who don’t listen to their demands, with Max being one of the latter. The leader, Doyle, especially hates Max the most for some reason. Maybe it’s the fact that in the three weeks he has been there he’s already created a posse that’s close to equal in strength to theirs. Or maybe it’s the fact that he’s three years younger than him but still has worse grades than him. Maybe. _

 

_ Max says with a raised eyebrow, “Wow, what an extensive vocabulary you have. You must be reaallyy proud of yourself huh.” _

 

_ Doyle smirks and barks out a laugh. “They’re definitely much taller than you, although that doesn’t mean much, pipsqueak.” Max stares bored at the taller boy. Honestly, Neil’s scientific insults that no one gets are exponentially better than Doyle’s. _

 

_ He simply replied, “Ah yes, tall words from a tall guy.” He gives an innocent yet venomous smile. “Too bad I can’t say the same about your dick~” _

 

_ The entire bus burst into laughter, even including some of Doyle’s posse. His face was beet red in humiliation and rage. He stands up and screams, “You motherfucker!! You’re going to regret that you little shi-!?!” _

 

_ The entire bus shook suddenly, causing a few to scream in shock and clutch onto the seats. Doyle trips and falls onto his knees in shock. A loud bark comes from the front of the bus. _

 

_ “Oi!! No fighting is allowed on the bus, or on school property! Sit your asses down this instant!” The bus driver gave a pointed glare to everyone, especially Doyle and Max, and looked back into the road. _

 

_ Everyone immediately went silent, although it still wasn’t long until people started whispering to each other. Max turned back smirking, with it only getting wider as he feels the heated glare coming from a certain asshat. He knew he was probably going to pay for that later, but it was totally worth it. _

 

_ He pulls out a cheap mp4 player out of his pocket and puts on the earbuds while leaning onto the bus window. _

 

_ He pressed play and impatiently waited for the start of the day. _

 

_ Looking back at it now,  he never really did realize how that decision would knock his entire life off its feet. _

 

~~•~~

 

God fucking  **damn** does his head hurt. 

 

He groaned and clutched his head, which felt like it was split into two. Adding to that was his left cheek, which was oddly numb and swollen.

 

All he could remember what tiny bits.

 

A loud bang. Fire. Smoke. Fur. Yellow.

 

Black. Cattle. Bats. Bones. 

 

And now back to black.

“He is awake!”

 

Huh? He heard a high-pitched voice that had a sort of sharp edge to it. It definitely belonged to a boy, however.

 

He cracked his eyes open slowly. Everything was blurry. He could make out a figure right in front of him, as well as quite a few more others behind them. His sight was already coming back to him, but rather slowly.

 

“W-Whaa.. Where amm I?” He croaked out, slurring his words a tad bit. He slightly furrowed his eyebrows in frustration at his sudden difficulty in pronouncing words.

 

Fortunately, his vision finally cleared up after a few seconds. Unfortunately, it also only took a few seconds for him to be tackled and wrestled down to the ground.

 

He lets out a yelp in shock and pain. More screams of shock followed, however, coming from the several other figures in the background. He peered at the assertive figure on top of him, only to freeze at the wide grin that greeted him.

 

Looming above him was a girl. She had soft, peach skin with uniquely turquoise-colored curls in a sort of a bob cut, pushed back by two small braids pulled back and connected with a clip. She wore a big, loose yellow T-Shirt with a dark red collar tucked into army green cargo shorts that went down to slightly above the knee, accompanied with red-striped tube socks and brown combat boots. Her bright magenta eyes held a sparkle as she peered down at the slightly taller boy. 

 

“Nikki?-hnnggh!!” That was all Max could utter out before he found himself being hugged to death by said girl. The boy tries to escape the girl’s grasp, only to quickly realize the impossibility of breaking her steel grip.

 

Nikki squeezes the boy even tighter, excited and giddy at the new development. “You’re here!! You’re really here!! Ohmigod ohmigod so much has happened while you’re gone!! Everything’s been so crazy and all and it was so awesome but I mean not that I didn’t care that you weren’t here to cause chaos but it was still pretty craaaaazzzyyyyy and-” She continued to babble to the boy, who seemed to be turning even more purple by every second. 

 

“Assistant! Step away from the boy!! Vou are killing mein patient!!” Max gasps a breath of air as two people pried the girl off of him, which proved to be extremely difficult.

 

“Are you alright?” He hears a familiar voice and looks up from his spot on the ground. He recognized the girl in front of him as the girl from during the fire. Isa, he recalled. She held out a hand, in which the boy hesitantly took with a nod.

 

Max is pulled up, and he steadily balances himself. He asks Isa, “Uhm, what the hell happenedd?” His comprehension, fortunately, seemed to be getting better.

 

She sighs. “You tell me. One moment Neil is talking with Kevin and the next he’s punched the lights out of you looking pissed as if you killed his cat or something.”

 

He felt his heart seize. Neil? He found himself slowly starting to remember what had happened. His chest felt heavy as he remembered the anger that burned in his eyes. Not to say he was surprised, of course. “O-Oh. Righht.”

 

He looks over to the two other people in the room. A boy slightly on the short side was hanging onto Nikki’s back in an attempt of keeping her at bay. He had a short, black brush cut with bubbly sky blue eyes and pretty pale skin with that basically permanent blush on his cheeks. He wore a gold shirt tucked in light-colored camouflage tactical shorts, as well as a caramel vest and black combat boots. If it weren’t for how he had a rather small and cute figure, as well as the fact that he was hanging onto the girl like a koala, he would’ve probably looked slightly intimidating to him.

 

Max raised an eyebrow. “Wait a fucking minute… Dolph?” That was definitely him. The outfit threw him off a little, but after second glance he could clearly tell it was him. 

 

The boy in questions loses focus and looks towards him, causing him to slip and fall onto the ground. He doesn’t seem to mind however, as he simply just gets up and brushes the dirt off his pants and walk over to him with a grin. “Hello, old friend! Or, as ze Japanese would say, ‘Kou-niichihaa!’”

 

He blinked. “Konnichiwa, you mean?”

 

“Zat is what I said, did I not?”

 

He pauses. “Ookay then. So uh, back to my first question: Where the actual hell am I??” After quickly looking around, it seems to be some kind of nurse’s office with all of the medical supplies around him.

 

Isa answered his question. “This is the infirmary tent, where we take anyone who is feeling ill or got hurt, you being a good example.” He could feel his pride shattering even more than it already it is. “When you got knocked out, good ol’ Kevie and Cherry rushed and carried you over here and got you taken care of. Eventually though Cherry had to return back to the other kids to continue on schedule, so me, Nik, and Dolphy volunteered to watch over you since Nik wanted to see you and all and Dolphy over there wanted to play doctor. The past few hours Kevin has been checking on you though every now and then. Actually, he was just here a while ago when you woke up. Pretty sure he’s out telling Cherry.”

 

Max blinked, as his eyes widened. “Wait, ‘the past few hours???’ How long have I been ou-  _ hhhhhkk!?!” _

 

Nikki fiercely tackle hugged the boy, wrapping her arms once again around the boy. “Yep, you’ve been out for like, four hours!!!” 

 

He taps Nikki’s arm several times. “N-Nikki, please, personal space!” The situation in itself was making him uncomfortable enough.

 

She pauses and gives him a puzzled look, but eventually relents and lets go of him. “Oh, uh, sorry?”

 

He rubs the nape of the neck awkwardly, not looking her in the eye. Everything’s way too much right now, and he’d rather have all the mushy stuff later when he can actually think clearly.

 

An awkward silence filled the area for a few seconds, no one sure what to say.

 

Isa coughs and approaches Max. “Ahem, well uh, now that everyone’s all settled and calmed down, how are you feeling? Do you still feel faint or stuff?”

 

He blinks. “Oh, I-I’m alright.. ish... Everything still feels a bit fuzzy, but other than that I think I’m good.”

 

She hesitantly nods. “Good, I-“

 

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!”

 

All of a sudden, Cherry barges into the tent red in the face and tackles Max, who really wasn’t expecting to be attacked three times today, but is now, unfortunately, expecting many, many more times in the future.

 

She shrieks, “OHMYGODAREYOUOKAYIJUSTHEARDTHATYOUWOKEUPANDIHA VEBEENSOWORRIEDSINCEITSBEENHOURSANDIHADKIDSTOWATCHOVERLIKEJESUSCHRYSLERAREYOUOKAYHOWHURTAREYOUDOYOUNEEDPAINKILLERSORSOMETHINGWAITDOESTHATCOUNTASDRUGSOHGODIDONTWANTTOGETARRESTED!!!!!”

 

“Cherry.. please get.. hff.. off of him..hff!” Kevin stumbles into the room, obviously tuckered out from his jagged breaths and contorted face.

 

The counselor in question squeaks, and quickly moves away from the boy after checking to make sure he’s steady and such. “S-sorry!!! I was just really worried!!” Max kind of just stood there dazed, his mind still trying to wrap around what the actual  **fuck** is happening.

 

Kevin catches his breath for a bit and turns to Max. “You, uh... hff, good dude?”

 

He gives a small shrug, not exactly sure how to answer that question. He looks over to Isa, who just looks absolutely frustrated. “I swear, does no one in this godforsaken camp have any self-control?!? Also, what the ever living hell took so long??? You were gone for like fifteen minutes!”

 

Cherry stuttered, “W-Well, I was in the middle of monitoring M-Magic Camp when Kevin c-came in with the news! I-I couldn’t leave the kids alone, so w-we had to get someone else t-to oversee them.”

 

Isa raises an eyebrow. “Wait, is David already here?” She asks. Max feels his heart freeze at the mention of his name.

 

Kevin rolled his eyes. “If David was here, he’d already have Max over here wrapped up like a cocoon in a blanket. No, we had to get  **him** .” He shudders just for the effect.

 

She froze. “Him?”

 

Dolph exclaimed, “Him?!”

 

Cherry nodded solemnly. “Him.”

 

Nikki chirps obliviously, “Ham!!”

 

Max blinks and hesitantly asks, “Uh.. who’s ‘Him’ exactly?”

 

Kevin grimaces. “Cameron Cam-“

 

**“Did somebody say, Cameron Campbell?!?”**

 

A humongous but unfortunately familiar man emerges from the shadows. He had grey curly hair and a thick mustache, with pale peach skin and bright blue eyes. He had an extremely broad chest and rather well-defined muscles covered by a button-up shirt and a tan leather jacket, accompanied with dull golden trousers and high brown leather military boots. He held a conniving look in his eye, one that the boy was all too familiar with, and enough to stun the boy to silence, as well as the rest of the room.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

“We told you to watch the fucking kids dammit!!”

 

~~•~~

 

_ Max taps his fingers impatiently onto his cold, hard desk bored out of his mind. Out of all of his classes, he had to say that math was his least favorite. _

 

_ Not to say that it’s difficult for him or anything. He actually doesn’t mind solving math problems really. It’s just so  _ **_boring._ ** _ His science teacher does a lot of hands-on learning which is pretty neat, and in Social Studies they talked a lot about mummies and myths and shit that was actually a bit okay. Hell, even in English most of the time was reading about kids doing stupid things or seeing some kids do stupid things.  _

 

_ But in Math? Crap, it’s all just a bunch of workbooks and notes and take-home quizzes on shit that he already knew how to do. _

 

_ Fortunately, it was his last class of the day, so at least he’d be able to anticipate going home and watching TV right after class. _

 

_ He glanced at the board unamused. They were on the unit on proportions today, which he already knew well from the millions of times his parents had drilled it into his brain. It was honestly astounding how these seventh graders,  _ **_who are all literally 2 years older than him_ ** _ , could be so dumbfounded on something he found rather simple. _

 

_ The small boy looks and smirks at Doyle, who sits in the absolute front of the class. He looks rather confused and frustrated as he sloppily hits down notes. _

 

_ While scrambling to catch up on the lesson, he accidentally knocks over his open water bottle. As it hit the floor and spilled onto the ground, the entire class silenced and shot their attention towards the boy. Max starts snickering, eventually causing the rest of the class to start laughing as well. Doyle’s face burned red, glaring even harder at the boy. _

 

_ “Quiet down!!” The teacher shouted. “Doyle Henderson, please go to the bathroom and grab some paper towels to clean up the mess.” As the red-faced boy stood up and stormed out of the room, the laughter slowly died down, although some kids were still snickering to themselves. _

 

_ The bell rings, and everyone starts to put their stuff together. The teacher sighs and says, “Alright, the class is dismissed. We’ll continue next Monday, have a great weekend!” _

 

_ As people started to fill up the hallways, Max slings his bag over his shoulder and grabs his books with one hand. He exits the classroom as quickly as he could and zooms over to his locker as fast as he can, smoothly speed walking through the hallways without bumping into anyone. _

 

_ When he catches sight of his locker, however, he saw some other people there as well. Standing there was his posse, a bunch of colored boys that were either more on the tall or burly side for middle schoolers, which made them rather intimidating. In other words, the perfect people to surround himself with to instill fear in others. They seemed to be having a glare down with a group of kids that he recognized from Doyle’s group. It appears that a small crowd had surrounded them, having had catches the attention of others. _

 

_ Max pushes through the crowd and enters the small circle that had formed around his locker. “Alright, what the fuck is going on here?” _

 

_ He got his answer soon enough, as his body slams hard onto the lockers. He flinches in shock while a fist gripped his hoodie and held him onto the lockers. The small boy curses internally, watching his books scatter all around on the floor and attempting to pry off his attacker’s hand off of him. _

 

_ Doyle glares at the boy with a smirk etched onto his face. “I’ve had enough of your shit, yknow that?” He snarls. _

 

_ Max shot a glare back, despite the disadvantageous situation he’s in at the moment. Yeah, he knew he was entirely fucked, but he’d rather be thrown off a cliff than subdue to pieces of shit like him. He retaliates, “Fuck off, tall-Ass.”  _

 

_...Cue internal facepalm. _

 

_ It seemed to be enough, however, to aggravate Doyle, as his face turns even redder. “You son of a bitch, I’ll fucking kill you!!!” He raises his other fist about to attack, only to receive a blow to the head. _

 

_ Doyle stumbles back in shock and loses grip of the smaller boy, who drops to the ground and steadies himself. With a smirk, he nods at Doyle’s attacker, one of his more loyal followers. “Nice hook there, Lightning.” Said boy salutes to him with his own smirk. The moment lasts only for a few seconds, however, as one of Doyle’s ‘bitches’ attempts to deck Lightning, causing a giant fistfight between the two gangs. _

 

_ At this point the crowd had tripled in size, several already having their phones out to record. Like always, they all just stood and watch with thrill in his eyes. It didn’t matter who they were, what they were fighting for, how they fucking felt. They were there to be entertained, nothing else. _

 

_ Max hears a growl come from behind him, sending a small shiver down his spine. He quickly moves to the side, narrowly dodging a punch to the face and probably a black eye. Doyle had a giant bruise forming on the right cheek of his face, all swollen and purple. It was honestly impressive.  _

 

_ He didn’t have much time to admire Lightning’s work of art however, as he dodges another of his aggressive attacks. Max had had his brawls with Doyle before, so he already knew pretty well about the way he fights. Doyle’s form is rather sloppy and aggressive, often aiming for the face but balances with how hard his punches are. He’s even heard from some others about how he once knocked out a sophomore with only one hit, and if he’s gonna be honest, he’d rather not get knocked out cold today.  _

 

_ With precise perception, Max swiftly avoids the boy’s rampant fists, occasionally giving a quick shove in an attempt to put him off-balance to balance off with the fact that he has no muscle whatsoever. This exchange went for quite some time, with Max’s predictions and knowledge on Doyle’s fighting strategy helping him a good amount. _

 

_ Unfortunately, he completely forgot about how Doyle is aware of his strategy as well. The fact only really dawned to him when he finds Doyle’s fist making contact with his stomach and as he doubled over in shock and pain, falling onto his knees.  _

 

_ He curses to himself in agony, as the taller figure towered over him with a smirk on his face. “Not so fucking tall now, are ya?” he sneered. _

 

_ Max locks eyes with the boy and glares at him hard, not seeming to care about his situation. It wasn’t like he was suppressing the urge to let out a cry of pain, biting down on his tongue so hard to the point that it’s bleeding. Nor did he have a pool of fear swirling around his chest, his heart beating out of it 60 mph. Nope, he was perfectly fine. He spits out, “Fuck. Off,” ignoring how he felt like he was choking and suffocating to death. _

 

_ Doyle narrowed his eyes. In anger, he kicks him hard in the same spot, sending him skidding on the floor as he started to cough up a little blood. He sits on top of the boy’s stomach, making him slightly wince, grabbing his collar and raising his dominant fist. “You’re going to fucking regret that, you sonnuva bitch.” _

 

**_“What is going on here?!?”_ **

 

_ Both of the boys froze, their eyes wide open.  _

 

_ The Cross Country coach moves through the crowd, which is quickly decreasing in size with the new addition to the court. He had a glare etched on his face focused onto the two boys. He yells at the already diminishing crowd, “Alright, shows over! Get your asses onto the buses now!” There were a few grumbles from a few who were recording the fight, but other than that there were no other complaints.  _

 

_ After the entire crowd had left, the coach peers over whoever was left, which was Doyle, Max, and a few others from their posses that didn’t escape with the crowd. With a stern voice, he yells, “Principal’s office. Now.” _

 

_ Doyle grips his still raised fist and glares at the boy while standing up as if this was all entirely his fault. ”You got lucky this time.” He spits at his face, and storms off to the office. _

 

_ Max glares at the disappearing figure in fury. He wipes his face with his sleeve, wiping off the spit but just smudging the blood dripping out of his mouth. Honestly, he never thought that he could hate Doyle more than he already did. _

 

_ “Yo, you okay?” Max turns to see Lightning crouched next to him with his hand out. Glancing around, he realizes that they were the only people left in the hallways, the others having already left to the office. He was slightly battered himself and held Max’s books and papers in his other hand.  _

 

_ He gives a small smirk. “Pff, please, as if that could even phase me,” he bluffed. The bigger yet more gentle boy rolled his eyes with a small smile but didn’t call him out. Max takes his hand as the boy pulls him up from the ground, flinching slightly from the aching pain in his stomach. Not gonna lie, he feels like he got hit by a truck and got his insides rearranged. It’s honestly astounding that he isn’t puking his guts out right now.  _

 

_ Lightning hands over Max’s papers and books. With a slightly bigger smile he says, “Here’s your stuff! They’re a little bit banged up but they’re not too bad, fortunately.” _

 

_ Max blinks and averts his eyes with a tight awkward smile. “Thanks..” he murmurs. He’s still kind of bad with polite shit like that, so he always gets a tiny bit awkward whenever he tries. _

 

_ It seemed to be good enough however, seeing how the other boy’s face lit up. ,  Lightning gives a mock salute. “No problemo, boss!” Max snorts as they start walking over to the principal’s office, his smile relaxing a little. _

 

_ The two had talked some more, but to be honest he really couldn’t recall what they talked about. After all, after a while, the good moments always seem to fade away to the immense bad of the past. _

 

_ But now? If he was given the chance to change the past? _

 

_ He's not exactly sure if he'd take it. _

 

_ ~~•~~ _

Bonus: Max's File _   
_

 

<https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ls4nNJct-/?igshid=1btidigcf31au>

 

Sorry folks! While handling his files, I accidentally spilled some coffee onto his papers! Oh well, you'll find out more about him eventually, seeing this is literally a story about him. - Author

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ,,yeaah at this point I think I'm just gonna make this a monthly kind of update schedule. I suck at weekly posts lmao. Also, I separated this chapter into two cause it's too?? effin?? long?? like damn I've only done three sections of the five for this chapter and it's already longer than both of the other chapters ;; So yeah! uwu


	4. Dreams and Regrets Pt. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Everything small is just a smaller version of something big.” 
> 
> – Finn, Adventure Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Max really just getting thrown around a lot.
> 
>  
> 
> ..yeah I'm bad at promises. Hope this is enjoyable th

“Why do you n-never listen to anything I have to say?!”

 

“To be fair, you are rather meek.”

 

“Campbell, I swear to the divine I am going to-”

 

“Hmm?” the broad man suddenly makes eye contact with the boy in blue plaid, who in turn tensed as he shifted in his spot on the ground. “Why, is that my favorite suddenly not-so-little scoundrel I see?”

 

Cherry sputters indignantly, “Wha- D-Don’t ignore me you piece of shi-”

 

“Come on, sport! No need to be lying around!” With the strength of a monstrous being, he walks over and hoists him up at the collar of his shirt as easily as a kitten. This did little to calm the crowded boy.

 

The boy gives a tight, awkward smile, shifting his eyes to the shining specs of the infuriated and red Cherry as he dusted himself off. “Yyo. You’re still here too, huh? Commit any crimes lately?”

 

Campbell lets out a huge laugh, like he was sharing a laugh with an old coworker, and leans down to him with a scandalous smile, “It isn’t a crime if you don’t get caught.”

 

..Yeah, let’s just take a few steps back.

 

Cherry lets out a frustrated sigh and sends a concerned glance towards Max. “Are you alright? I hope I didn’t rough you up!” she asks.

 

Of course, before Max could even open his fucking mouth, Campbell takes the stage. Again. “Nonsense, Amy!” 

 

“ **Ally.** ”

 

“Same difference! The boy seems perfectly fine! Now, back to more important things. Have you seen my Sloof brand sunglasses? They seem to have disappeared and I’m sure one of the brats took it!”

 

Cherry paused and slowly narrowed her eyes. “..That’s what you left the kids for?”

 

Aaand we’re back to the bickering.

 

As Max stared at the comedic scene, he feels a tap on his shoulder.

 

“Come on,” Isa says, grabbing his wrist and leading him out of the tent. “When those two start bickering, they never stop. They usually stop after maybe 10 minutes, but it’s a pain.

 

The boy opted to stay quiet and nodded his head. His head was still kinda pounding, but not the worst beating he’s had. In all honesty, however, he wishes he stayed passed out a little bit longer.

 

Isa drags him out of the tent and makes a turn, only to catch sight of two campers a few meters ahead.

  


 

The taller of the two had pale peach skin with piercing amber eyes. His brown hair was held in a tight bun, with partial side-swept bangs. The other had much darker skin and half-shaved lighter curly hair, with twinkling turquoise eyes. What stood out most about the two however was their clothing. The boy held a more vintage fashion, with a loose frilly shirt topped off with a vest, high waist jeans, and fabulous ass boots. In contrast, the other camper gave a more adventurous vibe, a long dress shirt accompanied with cropped jeans, adventuring boots, and striped socks, with elf ears and a magician’s hat and cape to fortify it.

 

As the girl brings him closer and closer to the two, his eyes widen in immediate recognition of the two. After all, their melodramatic vibes made them easy to pick apart from crowds.

 

“Hey Preston, Nerris! I-”

 

**“Are you brain damaged?! Farrah’s speed and strength would kill it in an instant!!”** **  
  
**

**“Excuse me??? That feral beast was KOed with just a fireball! There’s no way they could stand against the grace and flexibility of Miles the shapeshifter!”**

 

**“Do you understand how dumb you sound? The fireball was just a fluke and flaw on the writers. And may I add the ‘oh so great Miles’ was defeated by a HUMAN???”**

 

**“Hey, getting kicked in the balls is a pain you’ll never understand!!!”**

 

Isa looks like she’s about to pass out of exhaustion. Unfortunately, it was only noon. Another long day of chaos and bullshit was scheduled for everyone in Camp Campbell, and Max started to learn he’ll have to get used to it.

 

~~•~~

 

**_“-at did I do to deserve such a nasty bastard of a child?! So fucking ungrateful!”_ **

 

_ Max scowled even harder, focusing on the oh so lovely shitty city view. He glances over to his mom, who didn’t say a single word, focusing on the road ahead as she drove. Didn’t do shit though in hiding her disappointment, which really didn’t help his temper.  _

 

_ His father continued on his aggressive rant.  _ **_“Why couldn’t I have gotten a normal fucking child that listened to their parents!! Ellen’s son is top in his class and has many scholarships!! Why couldn’t you have become more like him.”_ **

 

_ Oh my fucking god, he wanted to kill this asshole so bad. Of course he’d bring up  _ **_Karen’s_ ** _ entitled brat. The bastard never fails to compare him to that suck up every single moment in his life. Like damn, he was 10 for fuck’s sake. He gritted his teeth and basically glared holes into the window. _

 

_ He was way too tired of his ‘dad’s’ bullshit and kept his mouth shut all the way back to their house.  The moment the car was parked, Max grabs his things and jumps out, slamming the car door behind him as he beelines to the door. _

 

_ He can hear his father screaming at him for just slamming the fucking door, but he ignored it and went through the front door after unlocking it. His head was still buzzing from his fight. Before he could storm into his room, his dad grabs his wrist roughly, infuriated. “Where the hell you think you’re going?! We’re not finished talking!!” _

 

_ Max glares at the man and gives a sardonic smile. “My room. You’ve already rattled on for half a fucking hour about what a disappointment I am. What else is there to talk about? Oh, lemme guess, I didn’t do the dishes or some other irrelevant complaint that you’ve never informed me of and are just adding to be a piece of shit?” It all came out before he could even think about it. _

 

_ The man looked like he was about to implode. Literally, his face was as red as a tomato. In anger, he subconsciously clenched his fist, crushing Max’s poor wrist. A shame, really. _

 

_ “Take that back boy and apologize, and maybe you’ll get off with only being grounded for life.” _

 

_ He narrows his eyes. “Make. Me.” _

 

_ Infamous last words. _

 

_ His head makes contact with the peeling wall as he hears his mom let out a shriek. The books in his hand scattered across the floor. Again. His eyes widen in shock. His breath was taken out of his lungs, as the man’s hand encircled his throat, strangling him like a rubber chicken.  _

 

**_“You want a fight, huh?!”_ ** _ he shouts with the anger of a bull.  _ **_“I’ll show you a fucking fight you little bastard!!”_ **

 

_ With his free hand, he scratched and tried to pull away from the man’s arm rapidly. Panic filled his mind as his heart seemed to be beating miles a minute. His vision was spotty, and tears filled his eyes. He glanced to the side, despite his eyesight quite quickly giving out on him. His mom was nowhere to be seen, even as he could feel himself dying.  _

 

_ Just as he was about to pass out, he heard screaming and was suddenly dropped onto the ground. He crumpled onto the ground, his lungs gasping for air. Everything hurt. So, so much.  _

 

_ Two blurry figures were tussling above him, one shoved down onto the ground, but he didn’t care. The only thought he had was his instinct: Run. _

 

_ He unsteadily gets up and winces, using his bruised hand to stand. Without thinking, he shakily runs out of the house. _

 

_ ‘Take a right.’ _

 

_ ‘Run into the alley.’ _

 

_ ‘Sharp left.’ _

 

_ ‘Keep going straight.’ _

 

_ ‘Right.’  _

 

_ ‘Into the opening.’ _

 

_ He kept running, and running, and running until he couldn’t anymore. He collapsed onto the mud-caked ground, heavy breaths accompanying him.  _

 

_ 10 minutes passed before he was able to even sit up and see clearly. When he did, however, he froze. _

  


 

_ Surrounding him was a vast field of blue evergreen trees, but not the normal dull light navy. They were fluorescent, shining a neon blue through its reflection of the surprisingly bright moonlight. _

 

_...Moonlight? _

 

_ Max looks up to the sky with utter awe on his face. There it was, the moon and the stars in all of its glory. He wasn’t sure what the exact time, but he swears the sun was still up when he got out of the car.  _

 

_ He blinks. Was he..dead? _

 

_...No, can’t be possible. He was just… _

 

_ Where did he just come from? He couldn’t seem to recall. _

 

_ He took a look around and saw something in the distance. _

 

_..a white door? _

 

_ He shrugs to himself and decides to check it out. Everywhere else just seemed to have an endless amount of trees.  _

 

_ It kinda reminded him of somewhere, but he couldn’t seem to figure it out. _

 

_ Before he could even take a few steps however, he was hit with a pleasant wave of emotions. Everything felt nice and relaxing. He suddenly found himself aware of the swishing of the grass by calm and slow winds.  _

 

_ Soon enough, he found himself slowly lowering down to the ground with dazed, content eyes, as the dirt embraced and surrounded him. There was a small, unsettling feeling he felt as he sunk,  but he ignores it, choosing to welcome this sudden bliss. _

 

_. . . _

 

_ [hm.] _

 

_ [intriguing, isn’t he?] _

 

_ [i suppose.] _

 

_ [we should probably return the boy. i don’t want to upset  _ **_him_ ** _.] _

 

_ [....a little longer. i can sense an,,, important event occurring.] _

 

_ [wait, what? surrounding the boy?] _

 

_ [correct.] _

 

_ [wouldn’t that be interfering with the timeline then?] _

 

_ [correct. tea?] _

 

_ [thank you. hopefully this won’t disrupt the order of events too much.] _

 

_ [hope does little in space and time, child. however, sentiment shared. while i cannot see too far into the future, i can ensure this will not be our last rendezvous with the boy. now, please pass the sugar, my tentacles cannot reach very far.] _

 

~~•~~

 

It took a bit, but Isa managed to push the two away from each other before one of them challenged each other to a ‘duel to the death.’ It was relieving to see a lot of his old friends, but… taking a better look at the bickering two and Isa, it all felt… off.

 

“So, Nerris... What did Preston do to get Harrison’s grill spot?” If he was still even here, he thinks to himself.

 

Everyone paused and focused their eyes on him- damnit again- as Preston and Nerris recognized the boy.

 

Preston grins. “Ah, if it isn’t the lovely Maximilian!” “Still not my name-” “It’s great to see your superior self at this fine camp!”

 

Nerris snorts at the boy, although smiling nonetheless. “Ignore this doofus Max, he’s just a dramatic idiot who believes a slime can hurt a nature spirit from a dumb and completely unrealistic play.”

 

He scoffs. “Hurt? Don’t flatter that gremlin, she’d be obliterated.”

 

Isa groans and rolls her eyes. “Come on, we have to get back to the Magic Camp. If Cherry passes out for the third time this week, I’m going to lose it.

 

“What are you guys doing out here anyway? You both are basically bound to Harrison’s hip most of the time.” If she noticed Max freezing with evident shock on his face, she didn’t show it.

 

Preston shrugs. “Harrison wanted someone to find him his x-ray glasses he left in the counselor’s cabin for an item finding trick or something. Nerris went to go, but they couldn’t find it and asked me for help. We got sidetracked however arguing.” ‘They?’ Max pondered but didn’t question it. Out loud, anyway.

 

Isa’s eyes lighted up in realization and turned towards Max. “Oh, right! Your papers haven’t been officiated yet, so all your stuff is in the cabin. Do you know your way there?”

 

Max shakes his hand. “More or less. I’ll find it eventually.” Pretty much done with this much human interaction for the day, he decides to just walk off.

 

Nerris calls out, “Oh Max! Can you get the glasses for us? Thank you!!”

 

Max flips them off without even turning. Only response he heard was laughter. 

 

In truth, he had no clue at all where the cabin was, but it’d be a cold day in hell the day he decides to willingly ask for directions. X-ray glasses was it? Shouldn’t be too hard to find.

 

‘Right.’

 

‘Straight through the tent area.’

 

‘Left?’

 

‘Shit where am I.’

 

‘Just gonna go straight.’

 

And he did.

 

Straight into a tree.

 

Max squeezes his eyes shut as he braces for impact. It wasn’t as hard as he expected, but his back was already sore from how many times he closed distance with the Earth that day.

 

He frowns and rubs his back in annoyance as he goes to glare at the tree that got into his way. When he did, however, he froze as a wave of deja vu hit him.

 

The tree was blue, but not the normal dull light navy. They were fluorescent, shining a neon blue through its reflection of the surprisingly bright moonlight.

 

..Moonlight?

 

Max felt unnerved as he tilted up to the sky. There was the moon and the stars, in all its glory. It was only noon damnit!

 

He looked down at the watch he had on his right wrist. Apparently he was in the fucking Twilight Zone because it was spinning like crazy.

 

He looks around and feels a heavy feeling in his chest. This place felt so familiar, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. 

 

Where did he come from anyway? Anything before slamming into a tree felt like a blurry haze to him.

 

He glances to his left and spots something in the distance. 

 

A white door.

 

And suddenly he found his body moving before he could process the next wave of emotions he felt. 

 

Urgency, and fear. The need to escape.

 

He only sprinted half of the distance from the door until he was hit. Despite his heart beating like crazy, he found a cool calmness shift throughout his body. He felt himself slow down and slouch down to the ground.

 

Although his eyes showed serenity and content, panic filled his thoughts as he finds himself sinking into the ground. He wanted to yell out or squirm, but it was as if he lost complete control over his body. Soon enough, he was submerged to the shoulders.

 

A moment before he was about to drift off, he glances to the side and spots something hidden in the grass.

 

**X-ray glasses.**

 

Harrison’s glasses!!

 

With sudden control of his body and memories, he pulls himself out of the dirt. Dirt was all over his clothing, but that really wasn’t something he should’ve been focusing on.

 

The feelings of deja vu and euphoria seemed to go away, leaving him with a semi-calm but still anxious mood.

 

Not wanting to stay here any longer than needed, he grumbles and snatches the glasses from the ground and jogs over to the ominous white door. He has no idea what the place is and he honestly did not want to know. He can just blame the entire thing on Harrison anyways.

 

Max swings the white door open, only to shield his eyes from a blinding ray of light. 

 

A normal person would’ve flinched and back away from it. 

 

But Max at this point was not that person.

 

So, like the careless Gen Z child he is, he stomps through the blinding light.

 

As he stepped out of the screwed up dimension, he barely caught the words yelled out faintly from behind him.

 

[thank you, come again!]

 

[please do not.]

 

. . .

 

“What the fuck?” 

 

It took a few seconds to regain his vision, but it wasn’t like there was much to see anyways.

 

Surrounding him was a red cloth. It was draped all around him trapping most of the light, so it was hard to see much of anything, including whatever was holding up the cloth. 

 

What he did see however was a pair of glasses with red and white spirals on the lens. Harrison’s X-ray glasses?

 

Max blinks in utter confusion. All he remembers was trying to find the goddamn cabin, blacking out, and appearing in this weird place. He never even reached the damn place.

 

Suddenly, he heard something. It was muffled from the cloth, but it seemed like someone was talking. As he shuffled closer to the voice, their words became slightly more easier to comprehend.

 

“Ladies..” 

 

“..perform for you today…” 

 

“.act you all have been waiting for..” 

 

“..reappear!”

 

He twitched in annoyance, as he tried to make out the words. 

 

Max frowned and stared curiously at the glasses that was in his hand. 

 

Should he…? No, that’s fucking stupid. Everyone knows that these things were made to rid idiots of their money. 

 

“3,,”

 

Still… It  **is** Harrison’s.

 

“2,,”

 

It wouldn’t hurt to try..

 

“1,,”

 

Wait, is someone counting?

 

**“Alakazam!!”**

 

In a flash, the red cloth was snatched from around him, summer sunlight shining down. The harsh glare of the sun he ignored, however, as upon sight he immediately recognized where he was.

 

A shocked silence moved across the entire Camp Camp theater. All eyes were on him, and his eyes were on all of them.

 

Max slowly turned to his right and pursed his lips as he makes eye contact with a rather gobsmacked Harrison holding the red cloth.

 

.

 

.

 

.

 

Max holds up the pair of specs. “Tada?”

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! This if my first actual chapter on A03, so I hope you like it! Criticism is welcomed here. Also I’ll be doing my best in posting weekly, so if you do like it you can wait around for that I guess. Peace!


End file.
